Volume 29 Issue 3, Pages 131-138

Summer 2018

Abstract:
Wells Fargo & Co.’s Community Banking unit had enjoyed a strong positive reputation for decades.
Wells Fargo as a whole had avoided most of the problems of the 2008 financial crisis,
only to stumble into its own crisis in late 2016. The Community Banking unit was
accused of opening millions of unauthorized accounts, firing employees for violating policy
without addressing the root causes of those violations, and failing to detect and prevent
these sorts of issues before they became widespread. Impact on consumers was widely varied,
from new checking accounts that sometimes caused no significant impact, to new credit
accounts that generated fees and caused negative impacts on consumer credit scores. How did the
bank’s approach to information management contribute to this problem? What could the bank have
done differently to have detected, responded to, and prevented future instances of
improper account opening? What does the bank need to do going forward to prevent future
problems and regain customer trust?